The Aussie disease that is devastating Britain

The Brits can’t get enough of Australian soap operas, pop stars and flat whites. But there’s currently one import they would rather do without — the potentially deadly so-called “Australian flu”.

The UK is currently in the midst of a health crisis with 4.5 million people claiming to have been laid low with what’s been dubbed “Aussie flu”.

Ireland has also been struck with the Republic’s first death from the virus last week.

The publicly run National Health Service (NHS), which runs the vast majority of UK hospitals, has been forced to cancel thousands of routine operations to make space for up to 200,000 Aussie flu sufferers.

Public health expert Professor Robert Dingwall, from Nottingham Trent University, warned it the flu would be bad. “The reports from Australia suggest the UK might be in for the worst winter flu season for many years,” he told The Sun.

Around 300 flu-related deaths occurred last winter in Australia with a record breaking 172,000 flu cases confirmed by the Department of Health, 2.5 times the previous year.

Of those, 87,000 were in New South Wales; 45,000 in Queensland and 17,000 in South Australia.